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Beating the Tactics mod was a fun experience (after the prologue anyway, in particular, the palisades battle). I decided to try it again, with a different party--too impatient to wait for an update. It's more or less party that's tweaked based on results of the previous run. It's a min/max powergame party with no regard to roleplay but does fit my preferred style of playing. This is designed to go through the Tactics mode in the normal game and then unmodded HoF mode using 2.01. There will be some mild spoilers as to what the enemies do with the mod.

The number designates the character's slot in the formation. Characters designated a. is my choice for this game. Characters designated b. is what I used for the last playthrough. Any higher subnumber is an alternative build to fulfill a similar role.

1. Black Luster Soldier
LG male drow paladin 1/sorcerer x
Stats: 10 str, 19 dex, 10 con, 14 int, 3 wis, 20 cha. All points go int cha.
Skills: concentration, spellcraft, alchemy
Feats: combat casting, expertise, subvocal casting, spirit of flames, spell focus: enchantment x2, spell focus: necromancy x2, etc

This is more or less the same as the last build I used. Last time I took 2 levels of paladin after sorcerer 18, but I ended up buffing everyone with Mind Blank, so the fear immunity turned out to be worthless. I'm thinking of dropping combat casting and getting blind fight before spell focus: necromancy, since he actually did a lot of the damage last time with Mordekain's Sword, and pretty much every boss had Improved Invisibility that I could not get rid of in any way.

2a. Enraged Battle Ox
LN male deep gnome monk 1/dreadmaster of Bane 1/druid x
stats: 14 str, 16 dex, 12 con, 13 int, 18 wis, 1 cha. All points go into wis.
skills: concentration, spellcraft
feats: dodge, expertise, combat casting, lightning reflexes, blind fight, improved critical, etc

This is what this party uses as a "meatgrinder" and "tank." He starts as a monk to gain evasion and wis AC then take druid levels until just before Khuldahar, at which point he'll take a dreadmaster of bane level to get the wis bonus from the quest. The druid levels is for wild shapes, which combos quite nicely with monk wis bonus, and for Barkskin. He'll do a lot of the damage during early to mid game with high str and wild shapes, then turn into mostly an AC tank for late game. Of course, he'll suffer from 20% then 40% exp penalty, which makes him lag behind quite a bit in levels. I'm also considering multiclassing him into an illusionist for HoF mode, after hittingn druid 20.

2b. Same as above, except he started with 16 str and 14 dex, and I increased str instead of wis, which was a big mistake, since he's not that great at fighting in normal form due to lack of martial weapon proficiencies and doesn't benefit from higher str in animal form.

2c. Exodia Necross
CE male deep gnome battleguard of Tempus 17/druid x
stats: 15 str, 13 dex, 14 con, 13 int, 18 wis, 1 cha. All points go into str.
skills: concentration, spellcraft
feats: dodge, expertise, combat casting, power attack, blind fight, improved critical, etc

An alternative tank. I chose to forgo Bane cleric in favor of Tempus to get axe focus, meaning I won't need a fighter level or spend feats to get proficiency. I definitely want either drow or deep gnome for this character, since he'll be in the front lines most of the time, and with the mod, it's often important to pump out a lot of damage in one turn to kill the enemy before they rebuff/heal. Hence, he needs spell resistance. I'll increase cleric levels to 17 then return and then work on druid levels.

3a. Hand of Nephthys
LE female drow dreadmaster of Bane 17/enchanter 13
stats: 10 str, 17 dex, 10 con, 20 int, 18 wis, 5 cha. Every point goes into wis.
skills: concentration, spellcraft, knowledge: arcana, disarm trap, lock pick, search, alchemy 2
feats: expertise, spell focus: enchantment, subvocal casting, greater spell focus: enchantment, discipline, combat casting, etc

This is my buff/debuff and utility person. Again, the high dex is used to achieve high AC (in conjunction with Spirit Armor, which I prefer due to its lack of weight and, later, no casting failure penalty). I picked Bane because of tyrant's dictum and the quest wis bonus, which makes his spells quite hard to resist. This is useless against bosses but pretty nice against minions. I opted to pick evil alignment because Unholy Blight gets spammed in chapter 1, and Blasphemy in chapters 5 and 6, and I need him to be mobile all the time. I picked enchanter because it's too late for her to do damage with evocation spells, though I'll probably sorely miss Mordekain's Sword. Alternatively, I can pick transmuter and abuse the opposition school bug.

3b. Magician of Faith
LG female drow morninglord of Lathander 16/paladin 2/enchanter x
stats: 10 str, 14 dex, 10 con, 20 int, 16 wis, 10 cha. 2 points int wis, 2 into dex, 1 into wis, then 2 into dex.
skills: concentration, spellcraft, knowledge: arcana, disable device, search, lock pick, alchemy 2
feats: expertise, spell focus: enchantment, subvocal casting, greater spell focus: enchantment, discipline, combat casting, etc

Her role and level progression are similar to the above, except that instead of debuffing during the middle of the game, she contributes additional damage output. The paladin level is taken as her 17th level instead of another cleric level. I opted not to minimize cha in order to get some bonus to saving throws when I get the paladin level. If I pick this build again, I'm definitely leaving paladin at 1 and getting 13 levels in enchanter instead.


And now, for the newcomers. The above is what I'd use at the start of the game. After that, I add additional members as I go along in order to level mule.

4a. Tsukuyomi
LE female drow fighter 4/sorcerer 14/dreadmaster of Bane x
stats: 16 str, 17 dex, 14 con, 5 int, 12 wis, 16 chat. Every point into str
skills: concentration
feats: combat casting, power attack, improved critical, blind fight, discipline, etc

This character is going to be introduced after I step into the glacier in order to lower CR against the golems in the area and the ice temple. She'll start with a level in fighter, then take a level in Bane cleric, and level squat until she can jump to sorcerer 12 to learn Tenser's Transformation. After that, she'll finish off the fighter then sorcerer levels, then end with however many Bane cleric levels I can get. She's going to be the meatgrinder of the party. I can't drop dex because the enemies switch targets to low AC characters pretty quickly.

4b. Magician's Valkyria
LG female drow paladin 1/sorcerer x
stats: 10 str, 19 dex, 10 con, 14 int, 3 wis, 20 cha. Every point goes into cha.
skills: concentration, spellcraft, lock pick
feats: concentration, spellcraft, alchemy
Feats: combat casting, expertise, subvocal casting, spell focus: enchantment x2, spell focus: necromancy x2, etc

Carbon copy of the first character except lack of Spirit of Flames, which will not be that useful by the time she stops being the level mule. She'll start with a level in paladin, then level squat until after defeating the beholder in Dragon's Eye exit.

5a. Same as 4b. She'll be introduced after being summoned into the Ice Temple as a level mule and squat until some unspecified point in HoF mode.

5b. Same as 5a. Level squatting is done until the necessary breaking point mentioned above.

6. Gren Maju Da Eiza
CE male drow bard x
stats: 10 str, 17 dex, 14 con, 16 int, 3 wis, 20 cha
skills: concentration, spellcraft, bluff, diplomacy, intimidate
feats: lingering song, combat casting, discipline, spell focus: enchantment x2, etc

He's also introduced after being summoned in the Ice Temple. He'll level squat until L11 (which will be in HoF mode), then level squat into some unspeficied future point, probably after HoF mode Ice Temple. He's also used to convince Vese Nejj to give me tattoos (requires diplomacy 10 or above, I think). Characters 5 and 6 are mostly level mules, so I picked bard to play around with it.

[Edit] A nice (not so) freshly (not) home-baked ginger snap to anyone who gets whence I got these character names.

[ December 26, 2006, 06:57: Message edited by: Mokona=Modoki ]

 

Tactics4IWD2-V1.1 will be done within a week. Druid Shapechange will be balanced to make the elementals form more valuable. And summon spells will also be balanced.

 

Aren't you afraid that HoF mode will be far too easy for you ?

Many just beat it continuing with a normal party or soloing while you use level squatting and muling cheats with a powergaming party.

 

A few changes to character 4:

1. Start as LG with a paladin level.
2. Leave the Bane cleric in Khuldahar.
3. Side with Xvim during the sanctification ritual.
4. Take a level in Dreadmaster of Bane after the ritual, and he changes to LE.
5. Return and kill the Bane cleric in Khuldahar.

The purpose of this is to get both the paladin stat boost and the Bane cleric stat boost (for better saves). I'm losing on some feats and weapon specilization, but I think the superior saves, access to the Holy Avenger, and higher stat bonuses outweight that easily.

 

But, if you change to LE, you can not equip Holy Avenger any longer.